INJECTION SITE ALLIES PLEAD CASE

Ottawa's needle exchange program addresses the spread of communicable
diseases, but a supervised injection site here could help reduce
deaths due to drug overdose, a man who helped start Australia's first
such program said yesterday.

"Nobody was there," said Tony Trimingham, whose son Damien, 23, died
alone in a stairwell from a heroin overdose in 1997.

Trimingham was guest speaker last night at an information session at
the Ottawa Public Library -- the first of three on a tour by
injection site supporters that also includes Montreal and Toronto.

Along with other affected families, Trimingham opened an illegal
injection site in a church and, in 2000, he helped open Australia's
first legal site in Sydney. Today, it is one of 50 around the world.

"The purpose of a supervised injection site is not to prolong drug
use," he said. "It's to keep people alive until they can make a
decision to give it up. Overdoses are reversible if people act
quickly." Injection sites for addicts are controversial locally and
across Canada these days, after the B.C. Supreme Court recently ruled
that the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act is inconsistent with the
Charter of Rights and Freedoms in regards to InSite, Vancouver's
supervised injection site.

Site supporters are on a public education tour to move the issue
forward, said Liz Evans, the founder of the organization.

Evans, who was educated in Ottawa, said more than a million
injections have taken place at the site since it opened in 2003 and
not one of them has resulted in a death.

"I think it's up to a local community whether they have supervised
injection sites," said event organizer Nathan Allen.

"If a community decides they need a safe injection site, then they
should be able to do that."